Offices Face up to networking craze

The Aust Fin Review from 18 January 2008 has an article on the use of Facebook in the workplace (see Pages 1, 57). For example, Qantas group QF Crew is for staff using it to swap stories about their 'high-flying workplace'. Then there's the Qantas Flight Atendants group for, you guessed it, flight attendants.
In some workplaces Facebook is now seen as a third means of communication (the others being email and phone). Members can include senior staff and board directors - this is especially likely in 'knowledge work' in industries such as consulting, legal and financial services.
Included in the article is a table of Australian based companies showing their attitudes to the use of Facebook in the workplace. These range from 'official corporate presence' to 'tolerates it' and 'bans it', plus one company, AMP, which is believed to be working on an alternative.
Those that ban it cite reasons such as time spent on the site and the effect on bandwidth of 'content-heavy' pages. Most of those that tolerate it provided employees' use doesn't breach internet usage guidelines. Some use it as a way to communicate with staff and customers. Some are also investigating developing their own internal facilities because of the potential value as a team space.
One concern cited is that of security, that is, the potential for sensitive or confidential company information to be inadvertently revealed to the world.
However, 'ultimately, if there is one message that corporate Facebooks users commonly espouse, it is that the technology and social networking are here to stay'.